About the Art Wall

Full mosaic of the 1916 Durham County Courthouse

Visitors entering the lobby of the new Durham County Courthouse see, on the right, a three-story, 48-by-30-foot image of the county’s second courthouse, a Neoclassical structure built in 1916. The image is created from 265 unique photographs that have been duplicated many times to create a collage of 6,500 postcard-size images.

The primary subject of the photos is justice in Durham County. The mural includes photos of judges, sheriffs, clerks of court, district attorneys, and others involved in the county’s justice system since its beginnings in 1881. Other photos depict images of justice beyond the courtroom, including those who fought for the rights of African-Americans, gays, women, and workers and historical justice-related events such as the largest troop surrender of the Civil War and the taking of land for Camp Butner. It also includes photos of Durham’s former courthouses and of the neighborhood where the new courthouse sits.

About the “And Justice for All” Web Exhibit

In July 2011 county manager Mike Ruffin called a meeting of representatives from Durham County government, the Durham County judicial system, O’Brien/Atkins Associates, PA (architects), and the community. The purpose of the meeting was to form a committee to select photographs that would form the individual components of a mural of the 1916 Durham County Courthouse. That mural would be installed in the lobby of the new courthouse. The Art Wall Committee, as it came to be known, carefully selected 265 photographs, most of which were chosen to depict the theme of justice in Durham County. The committee determined that viewers of the mural needed a way to learn about the individual photographs that it was made of, and this web exhibit was born.

This exhibit is available both online through the Durham County Library and as a touch-screen exhibit in the lobby of the new courthouse. If you find errors, discrepancies, or omissions in facts or interpretation, please contact Lynn Richardson, North Carolina Collection, Durham County Library, 919-560-0171, lrichard@dconc.gov.

Exhibit credits

Lori compiled the exhibit content. She is a student in the joint School of Information and Library Science/Public Administration master’s program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She worked long and hard to compile a tremendous amount of information. This exhibit could not have been completed without her.